New Yorker weighs in on Willard

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following letter to the editor was sent to the Reflector by William P. McMillen of Delmar, N.Y.

Drawn to your newspaper due to an article in the New York Times about what had been planned as a welcoming party in the town of Willard for returning farm workers from Mexico.

The Times mentioned that one person opposed to the party suggested that those here illegally be met with handcuffs. What I found was a letter dated April 7 by a 34-year-old army veteran offering a cogent argument about the expense of such a party and suggest other priorities that have been ignored. Making a dubious claim about the farm workers taking Willard jobs, he claims no animus but would contact Immigration so that those here illegally could be deported to the detriment of Willard farmers and the local economy.

Immigrants who commit no crime, whether having entered with permission or not, should have the same rights as the writer of that letter. While there is no certainty that the 34-year-old man of the same name and same age is he who wrote the letter, and he certainly is innocent until found guilty, it is disturbing that a man who was arrested last August for burglary and again in October for felonius assault expresses views that suggest some level of superiority and entitlement that he would deny to others.

I presume his personal misfortune is the result of many factors and hope that he can somehow manage to focus on addressing those factors and not distract himself with imaginary blame to others.